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History
This is the updated known history of the world as your character would know it. 1 G.A. :A new era is proclaimed as a golden age of infrastructure and building sweeps across the bowl of the world. Trade routes are established and travel becomes frequent and common between the five great cities. 187 G.A. :An order of mages is formed out of the most magickally talented populace, existing to serve and protect others who live in the five great cities of the great dust bowl. By studying pathways and focuses towards peace and life magicks they become a seemingly undefeatable foe against corruption and crime as well as immutable light and guidance to many. 517 G.A. :Akhilendra Veritan is born. Despite generations of ordered calm and peace, he is trained nearly immediately from birth as crimson guard for the city of Qur like his ancestors before him. One of the last remaining military organizations, it serves as an almost unnecessary adjunct to the past. 530 G.A. :The order goes through turmoil and change, something within the ranks of monk like calm has been disturbed and immediately changes are noticed in all the great cities. Violence and crime start to escalate in the cities amidst frequent attacks on caravans and traders which halts the flow of supplies reaching the populace. With very few men trained in arms to help defend the trade routes the mages find themselves quickly strained. 535 G.A. :Without warning the water sources furthest south of the great bowl begin to dry up, the liquid thickening as it is replaced by a mucky black tar like mud. The effect continues rapidly across the lands and food resources become more valuable than gold. The wealth of the cities is depleted rapidly as every resource goes into stopping the advancing tar lands. 542-545 G.A. :Known now as the great collapse, the surge in violence and banditry from desperate and starving souls crosses borders and sets the five cities into a brutal war with each other. Few allies are kept as this madness seems to sweep across from the highest levels of the governments. Panic over the growing lack of water only encourages and amplifies the damage done as all attempts to resolve the continually forming Tar result in little results. 545 G.A. :During the last year of the collapse, all five of the cities are easily defeated one at a time by a devastating and powerful army of half-dead Mora led by an unknown source moved without real contest into each, burning it to the ground afterward and leaving inhospitable ruin behind. :The army seems to rely on and follow a newly forming river made purely of the Tar mud to the final and greatest city of them all, Qur. :Akhilendra Veritan is one of the only few survivors of the crimson guard of Qur who die nearly to a man in its defense. :He only leaves the city finally under direct orders to protect and assist those escaping the rubble left from the battle and despite having no rank at all, quickly becomes a hero and savior in the people's eyes, his fighting abilities seeming almost supernatural against a society lost to decadence and wealth. :Folklore tells that he personally slew over a thousand Mora in one month alone and yet it seemed to have no effect on their numbers. 550 G.A. :The Mora armies have overrun endless miles and miles of land, choking off everything from all races other than their own by assaulting and destroying water sources. :A massive migration takes place as thousands of refugees of all nations and backgrounds are forced further and further north ahead of the Mora armies who seem to advance only as quickly as the Tar River can flow. :Many of the small towns and villages fight, and fight valiantly. Nearly fifty percent of the elven tribal population is eradicated in one year alone, bravely fighting on against impossible odds to protect wells, oasis, and other water sources that have been traditionally lived around for countless ages. :Rumors spread that the dead are hauled away by the Mora after and taken back to the river to feed it. 551 G.A. :A small encampment between a large gap in the Northern Rise, called Bal-Travas, is chosen as the only hope against the Mora army, and with the help of hundreds of hands it quickly becomes a stunning example of defense with walls rising impossibly high with the help of the huge northern rise cliffs to build off. 553 G.A. :The last few refugees make it within the walls before they are sealed permanently, the ruthless army covering the southern desert horizon in thousands of tents and Mora soldiers. :Rumors are spread among the last survivors of the still approaching river of tar coming towards the Valley and Bal-Travas. :Panic grips the scattered people as they take up what measly arms they have remaining to fight with. :In this year the city almost falls numerous times. Despite the defenses the Mora do not seem to tire, assaulting and smashing daily at the gates to steadily weaken them. :It is during this time that Akhilendra Veritan saves the city almost daily through his own combat prowess and through his daily instruction to untrained citizens, establishing the current military order, the Crimson Blades. :With the help of Ornon Halkari, last of the old order mages, a magical barrier is erected just in time to hold off the river of Tar. Three elders are entrusted with the knowledge to maintain it, and the judgment of whom to pass it to next. :This great responsibility on their shoulders quickly elevates them to positions of political power within Bal-Travas. 555 G.A. :Akhilendra Veritan is declared the first Hero of Bal-Travas and granted the title of Archon. He declares a new age of co-operation between races as the great northern valley becomes the last known place sealed away from the Mora plague. :A new year is begun as most realize, the age of the endless Mora siege is upon them. Construction is rampant as the population quickly expands past the city's walls into the Valley. 09 M.S. :A towering construction of bone and wood passes through the magical barriers protecting the city from magical attack. Druven Arnasi, a skilled swordsman and captain of Akhilendra's Crimson Blades leaves on a near suicide mission around the edge of the Northern Rise to lower to the desert sands and disable it before it allows easy access over the walls of Bal-Travas. :He returns a week later, nearly dead but victorious and is risen to an Archon in status by the council of elders. 14 M.S. :A stalemate has lingered for years now, the magical barriers preventing the Tar river and other dark magic from penetrating the cities defenses still remain, but a physical push is attempted again by the Mora. :Heavy losses are on both sides until the appearance of a Dark mage explaining himself as the One King, Lord of Death, brings a temporary bout of communication. Akhilendra, High Captain of Bal-Travas and Archon goes out to meet this King and hear his demands. :Little is known of what is said, but that Akhilendra would not back away and accept a single of the King's heavy prices for an end to the war. :A trap is sprung from which Akhilendra never returns, but in his final moments surrounded by a sea of Mora a singular bright piercing light radiates out, and both he and the self proclaimed Death King disappear. :An immediate stalemate returns, with the city fighting on and training under it's new High Commander, Druven Arnasi. 128 M.S. :Generations have passed since the last assault on the walls of Bal-Travas, but age old magic is gaining strength again, and for the first time in most lifetimes, the assaults on the walls, have begun again, forcing Bal-Travas to seek and search through its population for its greatest heroes yet.